BEST POETRY & LITERATURE

Poetry

Calling a Wolf a Wolf

Akbar, Kaveh.
Alice James. ISBN 9781938584671. POETRY

Debut poet Akbar runs full tilt emotionally but is never self-indulgent, displaying refreshingly unshowy honesty about his struggle with addiction and recovery. Even as he stands poised amid life’s clatter and rattle, wanting to retreat yet hungering for more, Akbar bravely addresses his soul-eating monster (''thinking if I called a wolf a wolf I might dull its fangs''). (LJ 5/15/17)—Barbara Hoffert

[ 1 of 5 ]

When I Grow Up I Want To Be a List of Further Possibilities

Chen Chen.
BOA. ISBN 9781942683339. POETRY

Visually vivid, erotic and intimate, and at times bitingly funny, Chen’s debut collection is steeped in the pain of being other as both Asian American and gay. He’s excellent at relating the confusion of childhood and the kind of imagination it takes to adapt to a new culture. And the command of language is amazing: ''I carried in my snake mouth a boxful/ of carnal autobiographies.'' (LJ 4/15/17)—Barbara Hoffert

[ 2 of 5 ]

Whereas

Long Soldier, Layli.
Graywolf. ISBN 9781555977672. POETRY

A citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation, Long Soldier uses urgent, muscular, fiercely vibrant verse to comment on historical and ongoing abuses while exploring the very concept of language: how tightly it’s bound to culture, how it shifts and defines the speaker, how it must be used well. The tour de force title section confronts the U.S. government’s meager apology to Native Americans in 2009. (LJ 4/15/17)—Barbara Hoffert

[ 3 of 5 ]

Some Say

McLane, Maureen N.
Farrar. ISBN 9780374266585. POETRY

In slim, trim lines, delivered smartly in an offbeat, conversational tone, McLane gets down to the essence of things, and she wants us to go there with her: ''Let’s enroll ourselves// in the school of the sky/ where knowing/ how to know/ and unknow is everything.'' Rare is the poet who can so successfully blend that kind of speculation with a visceral appreciation of the touchable everyday. (LJ 3/15/17)—Barbara Hoffert

[ 4 of 5 ]

Don’t Call Us Dead

Smith, Danez.
Graywolf. ISBN 9781555977856. POETRY

This transcendent collection opens in a sort of sunlit afterlife where black males who died violently ''jump// in the air and hang there,'' unburdened by fear, while the core ''dear white america'' offers a stab-in-the-heart summation of the consequences of racism, presented in taut, pearlescent language. The whole masterly collection serves to address central issues in America today. (LJ 8/17)—Barbara Hoffert

[ 5 of 5 ]

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2017 BEST BOOKS CONTRIBUTORS

LJ editors are listed by initial at the end of annotations:

Mahnaz Dar (MD), Assistant Managing Editor, LJS

Kate DiGirolomo (KD), SELF-e Community Coordinator

Bette-Lee Fox (BLF), Managing Editor, LJ

Liz French (LF), Senior Editor, LJ Reviews

Barbara Hoffert (BH), Prepub Alert Editor, LJ Reviews

Stephanie Klose (SK), Media Editor, LJ Reviews

Amanda Mastrull (AM), Assistant Editor, LJ Reviews

Annalisa Pesek (AP), Assistant Managing Editor, LJ Reviews

Stephanie Sendaula (SS), Associate Editor, LJ Reviews

Wilda Williams (WW), Fiction Editor, LJ Reviews

All outside contributors are listed by name:

Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L.

Mara Bandy, Champaign P.L., IL

Tom Batten, Grafton, VA

Lisa Campbell, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., South Deerfield

Sandra Collins, Byzantine Catholic Seminary Lib., Pittsburgh

Martha Cornog, Philadelphia

Nanette Donohue, Champaign P.L., IL

Rachael Dreyer, Pennsylvania State Univ. Dept. of Libs.

Karen Ellis, Taylor P.L., TX

Heather Halliday, American Jewish Historical Soc., New York

Emilie Hancock, Mount Pleasant Regional Lib., SC

Marlene Harris, Reading Reality, LLC, Duluth, GA

Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

Megan M. McArdle, Library of Congress, National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped